BBB says email is phishing trap

December 21st, 2011by Staff Report in Business Around the Region

Chattanooga's Better Business Bureau cautioned consumers Tuesday against opening fraudulent emails that may appear to be from the BBB but actually are attempts to hack into computers for valuable information.

Jim Winsett, president of the BBB of Southest Tennessee and Northwest Georgia, said his bureau is receiving numerous calls and emails regarding an email which is made to appear as if it was sent by the local Better Business Bureau under the email addresses of riskmanager@bbb.org, manager@bbb.org, alert@bbb.org, risk@bbb.org, and service@bbb.org.

"This email contains an attachment regarding a recently filed complaint. Please do not open any attachments and disregard this email. This email is a scam," Winsett said.

BBB does not send complaints as attachments via email, Winsett said. The email attachment may contain malicious content and should be deleted from your computer immediately.

One business opened the affected attachment, which launched malware that quickly found the accounting office's computers, accessed bank numbers and passwords, and nearly completed a fund transfer from the company's account. The business had to completely wipe the computers in order to contain the damage to the network, WInsett said.

BBB recommends to anyone who receives the email:

* Do not open any attachments

* Do not click on any links

* Delete the email from your inbox, and then delete it again from your trash or recycling folder

* Send suspicious BBB email to the bureau's phishing deactivation team at phishing@CSCprotectbrands.com.